Judi Dench provides some regal laughs in her second time playing Queen Victoria

Wednesday

Sep 27, 2017 at 5:20 AM

By Ed Symkus, Correspondent

Set in late-1800s London, Stephen Frears’ “Victoria and Abdul” is about as far as you can get in style and content from the grittier side of his resume, including “My Beautiful Laundrette,” “The Grifters,” and “High Fidelity.” But he did make “The Queen,” and this new one stars Judi Dench, who he directed in “Philomena,” and who played Queen Victoria 20 years ago in John Madden’s “Mrs. Brown.”

This time she plays an older, frailer queen, a Victoria who has been on that throne for six decades, who has outlived her husband, who has no interest in her adult children, and who is bored and lonely. The (mostly) true story told here has been more or less under wraps throughout the years, coming to light when an Indian journalist stumbled upon it and wrote the 2010 book upon which it’s based.

Serving both as Queen of England and Empress of India, someone – certainly not Victoria – decided that she should be awarded a gold coin to show the gratitude of her “second country,” and that it should be presented to her by an Indian clerk named Abdul Karim (Ali Fazal), purportedly because he was the tallest man Indian officials could find to do the job.

But before he and his ever-complaining friend Mohammed (Adeel Akhtar, providing some comic relief) can make the trip to England, we get a look at the queen and her court, in scenes that result in even more comic relief.

The queen snores, really loudly, when she sleeps; it takes a passel of servants to wake her, dress her, and get her all made up each day; and she’s both the sloppiest and fastest of eaters. It’s a great deal of fun to see Judi Dench playing it for laughs, albeit with a straight – make that scowling – face.

She’s presented as a sad woman who, with nothing much to live for, is shown practically eating herself to death, doing the duties of her office, but not at all into it. But when the emissaries from India arrive, things change. Even though the initially confused Abdul is warned never to look directly at her, it’s apparently OK for her to look at him, and then for him to look back.

Abdul and Mohammed are in England to do this little ceremony, put up the ridicule sent their way by the racists in the queen’s circle, then go home. And that would be fine with her eldest son Bertie (Eddie Izzard), who is next in line to be king, and is champing at the bit for her to die. But the queen takes a fancy to, and eventually is besotted by, this handsome fellow Abdul, and just that sight, along with his willingness to chat when she speaks to him, gives her a new lease on life.

That’s the backbone of the film, with the meat around the bone consisting of Bertie’s annoyed reaction to it, something to the effect of, “What the hell is going on here?”

An interesting ingredient is that, with Dench going for some of film’s plentiful laughs, Izzard, a standup comic of international renown, plays it completely straight. When first met, he’s a full-of-himself, unpleasant man. Later in the film, he effortlessly turns villainous. It’s a terrific performance.

The film is also glorious to watch for its period design, featuring some amazing costumes as well as locations in India and Scotland, from England’s Belvoir Castle to Osbourne House.

Don’t go looking for any hanky-panky between the old Brit and the young Indian; that’s not what this film is about. But it is indeed a love story, told in an offbeat, dignified, and lighthearted manner. It also aims barbs at the clueless aristocracy, an element that provides even more fun.